'God is the Trinity, he is a communion of love; so is the family.' Sunday Reflections, Trinity Sunday, Year C

 

The Two Trinities 

Murillo [Web Gallery of Art]

Readings (Jerusalem Bible: Australia, Ireland, New Zealand, Pakistan,)

Readings (English Standard Version, Catholic Edition: England & Wales, India, Scotland) 

Readings (New American Bible: Philippines, USA)

Gospel John 16:12-15 (English Standard Version, Anglicised) 

My apologies for having printed the wrong gospel earlier. Here is the correct gospel.

Brothers and Sisters: Since we have been justified by faith, we have peace with God through our Lord Jesus Christ. Through him we have also obtained access by faith into this grace in which we stand, and we rejoice in hope of the glory of God. Not only that, but we rejoice in our sufferings, knowing that suffering produces endurance, and endurance produces character, and character produces hope, and hope does not put us to shame, because God’s love has been poured into our hearts through the Holy Spirit who has been given to us.

Léachtaí i nGaeilge

                      

Holy Family and Trinity

Jacob de Wit [Web Gallery of Art]

During my kindergarten, primary and secondary school years, 1947 to 1961, on schooldays my brother Paddy and I had breakfast and dinner - a midday meal for almost everybody in Ireland in those days - with our mother. In the evening we had 'tea', as that lighter meal is known in some English-speaking countries. The four of us were together for tea, my father having his dinner and tea combined. I often heard my mother 'complain' about having to prepare two dinners on weekdays. It would never have occurred to her or to any other working-class housewife in urban Ireland in those days to have dinner for the whole family in the evening. Now that is the norm.

However, we did have dinner together on Saturdays and Sundays. My father, like other construction workers, had a half-day on Saturday. Saturday was the only day when we had soup, usually barley soup, served in cups, not in bowls. Sunday dinner was special and the only day when we had dessert.

People's Gardens, Phoenix Park, Dublin

[Wikipedia; photo]

Sunday dinner was special, as it was for all families, and meant extra work for my mother who would spend the whole morning after Mass and breakfast preparing it. My father would take the two of us to meet our paternal grandfather and then for a walk in the nearby Phoenix Park. 

I don't ever recall my parents telling us that we were a family. We just knew. But it was only as an adult and after ordination that I realised that it was at our evening meals on weekdays and at our midday meals on Saturdays and Sundays that I experienced, without being aware of it, what family is. And our Sunday walks with my father were what is now called 'bonding'. Another part of that was Dad taking us to soccer games from time to time in nearby Dalymount Park. 

When in 1968 I went as a young priest to the USA to study I discovered that families there had to really work at being families, as the family couldn't be taken for granted, as it still could be in Ireland at that time.

Pope Benedict XVI was probably familiar with Murillo's painting above, The Two Trinities. In his Angelus talk on 27 December 2009, the Feast of the Holy Family, he said, The first witnesses of Christ's birth, the shepherds, found themselves not only before the Infant Jesus but also a small family: mother, father and newborn son. God had chosen to reveal himself by being born into a human family and the human family thus became an icon of God! God is the Trinity, he is a communion of love; so is the family despite all the differences that exist between the Mystery of God and his human creature, an expression that reflects the unfathomable Mystery of God as Love. In marriage the man and the woman, created in God's image, become 'one flesh' (Gen 2: 24), that is a communion of love that generates new life. The human family, in a certain sense, is an icon of the Trinity because of its interpersonal love and the fruitfulness of this love. [Emphases added above and below].

Pope Leo XIV

[Wikipedia; photo]

Two weeks ago in his homily during the Holy Mass on the occasion of the Jubilee of Families, Pope Leo XIV said: Christ prays that we may 'all be one' (John 17: 21). This is the greatest good that we can desire, for this universal union brings about among his creatures the eternal communion of love that is God himself: the Father who gives life, the Son who receives it and the Spirit who shares it. 

Further on Leo XIV speaks of marriage and the family in this way: For this reason, with a heart filled with gratitude and hope, I would remind all married couples that marriage is not an ideal but the measure of true love between a man and a woman: a love that is total, faithful and fruitful (cf. St Paul VI, Humanae Vitae, 9). This love makes you one flesh and enables you, in the image of God, to bestow the gift of life.

And in this sentence the Pope summarises my own experience and that of so many others: In the family, faith is handed on together with life, generation after generation. It is shared like food at the family table and like the love in our hearts. In this way, families become privileged places in which to encounter Jesus, who loves us and desires our good, always.

Holy Family with the Infant St John 

Murillo [Web Gallery of Art]

Almost every Catholic in Ireland went to Sunday Mass when I was growing up and our Protestant neighbours also went to church. When I was a small child it was usually my father who took me to Mass on Sunday morning. My mother, who had to take care of my baby brother Paddy went to a later Mass. (Paddy is 79 this Sunday and is now in a nursing home. You might say a prayer for him. I remember my Dad taking me up to my parents' bedroom to see my baby brother the day he was born.) And on special days such as Easter Monday, Whit (Pentecost) Monday, which were public but not Church holidays, Dad would take me to High Mass in one of the churches in Dublin belonging to religious orders such as the Capuchins and the Dominicans. 

Before Pope Pius XII changed the Holy Week liturgies in 1955 the ceremonies on Holy Thursday, Good Friday and Holy Saturday were held in the morning. Not too many would attend these. But on the afternoon of Holy Thursday my mother would take my brother and me to visit seven churches for adoration of the Blessed Sacrament at the Altar of Repose. That practice disappeared after 1954 in Dublin but is alive and well in the Philippines in the larger cities where it is called Visita Iglesia and is done at night with thousands of young people walking from one church to the next. On those childhood Holy Thursdays I experienced, as I look back, being drawn into the wider family that is the Church and into the life of the Trinity.

I must confess that as a child I didn't appreciate too much my father bringing me to High Masses or my mother bringing me to visit seven churches on Holy Thursday. But I could see clearly how Dad loved the solemnity of the High Mass and how central the Mass was to his life. He went to Mass every day of his life right up to the day he died. I am grateful now for the way my parents brought me into the life of the Blessed Trinity in this way. But I am also grateful for the way they drew me into the life of the Trinity, without my being aware of it, through our daily family life, especially our evening meals together.

Judaism, Christianity and Islam are often referred to as the three monotheistic faiths. Those who belong to these three faiths believe in only One God. I have often heard Catholics say in a well-meaning way, 'We all believe in the same God.' But that is not so. Only Christians believe in a God who is a communion of persons. And only Christians believe that Jesus Christ is the Second Person of the Blessed Trinity, God who became Man, who died for us on the Cross and rose again from the dead on Easter Sunday.

Firmly I believe and truly

Words by St John Henry Newman

Traditional Latin Mass

Sunday of the Most Holy Trinity

The Complete Mass in Latin and English is here. (Adjust the date at the top of that page to 06-15-2025 if necessary).

Epistle: Romans 11:33-36. Gospel: Matthew 28:18-20.

Holy Trinity

Jusepe de Ribera [Web Gallery of Art]

Go therefore and make disciples of all nations, baptizing them in the name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit (Matthew 28:19; Gospel).

'Be fruitful and multiply.' Sunday Reflections, 2nd Sunday in Ordinary Time, Year C

 

John 2:1-11 from The Gospel of John

Directed by Philip Saville

Readings (Jerusalem Bible: Australia, Ireland, New Zealand)

Readings (English Standard Version, Catholic Edition: England & Wales, India, Scotland)  

Readings (New American Bible: Philippines, USA)

Gospel John 2:1-11 (English Standard Version, Anglicised)  

At that time: There was a wedding at Cana in Galilee, and the mother of Jesus was there. Jesus also was invited to the wedding with his disciples. When the wine ran out, the mother of Jesus said to him, ‘They have no wine.’ And Jesus said to her, ‘Woman, what does this have to do with me? My hour has not yet come.’ His mother said to the servants, ‘Do whatever he tells you.’

Now there were six stone water jars there for the Jewish rites of purification, each holding seventy or one hundred litres. Jesus said to the servants, ‘Fill the jars with water.’ And they filled them up to the brim. And he said to them, ‘Now draw some out and take it to the master of the feast.’ So they took it. When the master of the feast tasted the water now become wine, and did not know where it came from (though the servants who had drawn the water knew), the master of the feast called the bridegroom and said to him, ‘Everyone serves the good wine first, and when people have drunk freely, then the poor wine. But you have kept the good wine until now.’

This, the first of his signs, Jesus did at Cana in Galilee, and manifested his glory. And his disciples believed in him.

Léachtaí i nGaeilge

Marriage at Cana

Tintoretto [Web Gallery of Art]

Back in the 1960s when I was in the seminary here in St Columban's, Dalgan Park, now the residence of about 70 retired Columbans, I contacted Molly and Jimmy who lived about ten minutes by car from here. I knew that Molly was related to me through my maternal grandmother and I remembered attending the funeral of her mother, known to my mother as Aunt Jane of Tara, in 1950 when I was seven. As far as I know Jane was a first cousin of my grandmother Annie Dowd, who married William Patrick Collins, my maternal grandfather. When my mother was young she would spend part of the summer with her Aunt Jane and her husband Owen. It was great for a child form the inner city in Dublin to be out in the countryside of County Meath. She often spoke of those days and would always smile when she mentioned her Uncle Owen. Jane was the stricter one and Owen was the 'softie'. But she loved both of them.

When I wrote to Molly and Jimmy I got an immediate response and they invited me to their home for Sunday dinner. Over the next few years I enjoyed many Sunday dinners with them. Molly's unmarried sister Maggie lived with them in a cottage near Tara, where the High Kings of Ireland once lived and which can be seen from the front of St Columban's.

Molly had been in very poor health since the birth of her second child Mary, known as Mae. Her first was William, known as Billy. He died in December 2017. Molly had spent three years on her back from some time after the birth of Mae. She never enjoyed robust health and in her latter days, when she lived in a nursing home, she had become blind.

What I remember most from visiting Molly and Jimmy was the warmth of their welcome and Molly's radiant smile. Jimmy worked for the Irish Land Commission, as I recall, and his salary was a modest, though adequate one. I remember him saying to me one time that he was happier in his cottage than Lord Dunsany was in his home, the nearby Dunsany Castle. The family name of the Lords Dunsany is Plunkett and they are related by ancestry to St Oliver Plunkett, Archbishop of Armagh, executed at Tyburn, London, in 1681, the last Catholic to be martyred in England.

For most of their married life Jimmy and Molly lived  the sickness part of their vow in sickness and in health. As I get older more and more do I see couples living that vow to the full. Such couples to me are radiating God's love for us. The Sacrament of Matrimony is a reflection of the love of Christ as the Bridegroom for his Bride, the Church. The First Reading of the Mass, from Isaiah, tells us, as the bridegroom rejoices over the bride, so shall your God rejoice over you. 

The response to the Responsorial Psalm is, Proclaim the wonders of the Lord among all the peoples. That is what Jimmy and Molly were doing for me, without being aware of it. That is the vocation of every couple who have bestowed the Sacrament of Matrimony on each other. It is the bride and groom who do that, not the priest. He, as an official witness of the Church, does indeed bless the couple during the ceremony with the Nuptial Blessing but it is they who give Jesus Christ to each other as the foundation of their marriage, till death do us part.

The Marriage at Cana (detail)

Paolo Veronese [Web Gallery of Art]

In recent decades in the formerly predominantly Christian Western world both marriage and family have been undermined and even ridiculed. Marriage is the foundation of the family. Marriage is between man and woman. In the first chapter of the Bible we read, So God created man in his own image, in the image of God he created him; male and female he created them. And God blessed them. And God said to them, ‘Be fruitful and multiply’ (Genesis 1: 27-28). The next chapter tells us, Therefore a man shall leave his father and his mother and hold fast to his wife, and they shall become one flesh (Genesis 2:24). Jesus repeats this teaching in Matthew 19:5 and Mark 10:8 as does St Paul in Ephesians 5:31.

The science of biology tells us that each of us is either male or female and that it is impossible for anyone to change their sex.

It is only a man and a woman who can be fruitful and multiply. In recent decades many countries have rejected the truth of this reality, lived since we humans first emerged, and proclaimed as a 'right' that two persons of the same sex can marry. Such a relationship is intrinsically sterile and, objectively, is an affront to God the Creator who made us male and female. But our consciences have been dulled and corrupted by the powerful international lobby that promotes and celebrates this dangerous nonsense.

The profoundly intimate act of love that enables a couple to express their commitment to be one till death do us part and that enables them to be fruitful and multiply belongs only within marriage. In God's plan a couple marry before they have children. In God's plan if they are still of fertile age they pledge, at least in Catholic weddings, to be open to new life.

It has to be acknowledged that in most of the Western world it has become more and more difficult for a couple to welcome and raise children because of the prohibitive cost of housing. Decisions about house-building by national and local authorities are a moral issue, not a utilitarian one. And in many places dues to poverty and/or war living conditions are dire, making it impossible for families to live decently.

Jesus' miracle of changing the water into wine is a sign of God's unbounded generosity. The six stone water jars each held a large amount of water, as the video above correctly shows. The good wine that Jesus produced amounted to the equivalent of more than 400 bottles of wine according to Scripture scholars.

The gospel passage ends with, This, the first of his signs, Jesus did at Cana in Galilee, and manifested his glory. And his disciples believed in him. St John uses the word 'sign' for miracle'.

Jesus did this to manifest his glory, that is, to enable people to see who he really was so that they would believe in him as God who became Man and so that each of us would have eternal life. Every married couple is called to manifest the glory of Jesus by the way they live their marriage, founded on the love of Jesus Christ whom they gave to each other on their wedding day. The Lord delights in such a couple and rejoices over them, as Isaiah tells us today. I know that God delights in couples like Jimmy and Molly because I saw in them their delight in one another as husband and wife. That grace remains with me to this day.

For Me and My Gal

Gene Kelly and Judy Garland

This song, written in 1917, was used in the 1942 movie with the same title. For me it reflects how most Western people a hundred years ago saw weddings and marriage. A wedding normally took place in a church: The parson's waiting for me and my gal. A couple was open to having children: We're gonna' build a little home for two or three or more. It involved the community: For weeks they've been sewing, every Susie and Sal.

These were the aspirations and hopes of most people then. They no longer are. We are all the poorer because of that. But the Alleluia verse gives us a clear direction: God called us through the gospel, so that we may obtain the glory of our Lord Jesus Christ.

Santo Niño de Cebú

[Wikipedia; photo]

Feast of the Santo Niño, Philippines

On the third Sunday of January the Church in the Philippines celebrates the Feast of the Santo Niño, the Holy Child. You will find Sunday Reflections for that Feast here. 

Traditional Latin Mass

Second Sunday After the Epiphany

The Complete Mass in Latin and English is here. (Adjust the date at the top of that page to 01-19-2025 if necessary).

Epistle: Romans 12:6-16. Gospel: John 2:1-11.

This Sunday the Mass in both forms uses the same Gospel.

    

In

Marriage is between one man and one woman. Full stop. Period.

 

Syro-Malabar Catholic Wedding, India

[Wikipedia]

The First Reading in today's Mass was St Paul's magnificent teaching on marriage, Ephesians 5:21-33. Here is the translation from the Revised Standard Version Catholic Edition.

 

Be subject to one another out of reverence for Christ. Wives, be subject to your husbands, as to the Lord. For the husband is the head of the wife as Christ is the head of the church, his body, and is himself its Savior. As the church is subject to Christ, so let wives also be subject in everything to their husbands. Husbands, love your wives, as Christ loved the church and gave himself up for her, that he might sanctify her, having cleansed her by the washing of water with the word, that he might present the church to himself in splendor, without spot or wrinkle or any such thing, that she might be holy and without blemish. Even so husbands should love their wives as their own bodies. He who loves his wife loves himself. For no man ever hates his own flesh, but nourishes and cherishes it, as Christ does the church, because we are members of his body. “For this reason a man shall leave his father and mother and be joined to his wife, and the two shall become one flesh.” This is a great mystery, and I mean in reference to Christ and the church; however, let each one of you love his wife as himself, and let the wife see that she respects her husband.

St Paul quotes Genesis 2: 24, Therefore a man leaves his father and his mother and cleaves to his wife, and they become one flesh. Jesus quotes these same words in Matthew 19:5 and in Mark 10:7-8.

This is against the background of the first account of creation in Genesis 1, Then God said, “Let us make man in our image, after our likeness . . . So God created man in his own image, in the image of God he created him; male and female he created them. And God blessed them, and God said to them, “Be fruitful and multiply . . . (Genesis 1: 26-28).

Any denial of this is an affront to God the Creator, indeed to nature itself. Marriage is between one man and one woman, as the Church has always taught. Every culture since the beginning of time has seen marriage as being between man and woman, though some allow polygamy (a husband with more than one wife) and polyandry (a wife with more than one husband). It is only in our time that some have re-defined marriage as also being between two persons of the same sex, using the lie of 'equality' to get gullible people on their side. This is not marriage as it has always been understood. It is an absurdity.

St Paul sees marriage as reflecting the relationship between Jesus Christ the Bridegroom and the Church his Bride. Husbands, love your wives, as Christ loved the church and gave himself up for her . . . This is a great mystery, and I mean in reference to Christ and the church. 'Marriage' between two persons of the same sex is a parody on this.

. Catholic Wedding, Kyoto, Japan

[Wikipedia]

Once again people are confused about what the Church teaches, or doesn't teach about marriage and about chastity. The Church has always taught that sexual relations may take place only within marriage. In any other situation the Church has always taught that this is objectively gravely sinful. This applies to everyone, whatever their sexual orientation may be. The virtue of chastity applies to both unmarried and married people.

Married people are called upon to practice chastity when they are apart, when one is sick, when practicing natural family planning, for example.

The Church does not turn away anyone who sins against chastity. The sacrament of confession is a gift given by God to us to ask for and received his forgiveness for any sin.

The Church does not teach through press conferences or documentaries, though these may be occasions for highlighting some teaching or other. 

However, when they cause confusion, as they have done in recent years, there is a problem. When a papal encyclical, a formal way of teaching, such as Amoris laetitia causes widespread confusion there is a much bigger problem, especially when cardinals, the Pope's closest advisers, who ask for clarification cannot even get an audience with the Pope. We have the situation now where bishops in some countries, eg, Germany condone what is considered by bishops in other countries, eg, Poland, as adultery.

Fr Gerald E. Murray is a canon lawyer and a parish priest in the Archdiocese of New York. He frequently appears on EWTN.  The Catholic Thing recently published an article by him, Pope Francis Oversteps the Papal Office, that expresses my thoughts.

The Catholic Bishops' Conference of the Philippines (CBCP) issued a statement on the latest confusion trying to answer the question Where is the Pope coming from? The statement refers to the story of the woman caught in adultery (John 8:1-11): He refused to judge the woman who had been caught in adultery without saying that what she did was right. He just did not think that condemning people or judging them was the right thing to do in order to work for their conversion. [My emphasis]. 

The words I emphasised are not incorrect but they are not fully accurate either. These are the words of Jesus: Neither do I condemn you; go, and do not sin again. Jesus did more than not saying to the woman that what she did was wrong. He told her clearly, without condemning her, that she had sinned. Jesus had profound respect for her and profound compassion. He was being truly pastoral.

+++

I have used the video above more than once on this blog. The song For Me and My Gal, which dates back to 1917 - the video is from a 1942 movie - speaks more clearly to me about marriage than some of what has been coming out from Church leaders in recent years. Marriage is between one man and one woman - in most cases young and open to welcoming children. A wedding is a community celebration involving community preparation and, in Western society at least in the past, usually took place in a church. For Catholics that means the Sacrament of Matrimony where Jesus himself is the foundation of the spousal relationship, a sacrament that the bride and groom confer on one another. (Many wrongly think it is the priest who does that. He is a witness who blesses the couple on behalf of the Church in the name of the Father, Son and Holy Spirit).

'Consider this often: you are God’s . . . and God is yours.' Sunday Reflections, Trinity Sunday, Year A

The Trinity with the Dead Christ

Lodovico Carracci [Web Gallery of Art]

Readings (New American Bible: Philippines, USA)

Readings (Jerusalem Bible: Australia, England & Wales, India [optional], Ireland, New Zealand, Pakistan, Scotland, South Africa)

Gospel John 3:16-18 (New Revised Standard Version, Anglicised Catholic Edition)

Jesus said to Nicodemus:

‘For God so loved the world that he gave his only Son, so that everyone who believes in him may not perish but may have eternal life.

‘Indeed, God did not send the Son into the world to condemn the world, but in order that the world might be saved through him. Those who believe in him are not condemned; but those who do not believe are condemned already, because they have not believed in the name of the only Son of God.'

Léachtaí i nGaeilge

The Two Trinities

Murillo [Web Gallery af Art]

A few years ago we in Worldwide Marriage Encounter in Bacolod City, Philippines, held a family day. One of the last activities was for the pre-teens where the children were asked to share with everyone what they most loved about their parents. One boy of about ten said, 'What I love most about my parents is that they are always together'.

In my closing remarks I picked up on this and reminded the couples that this youngster had expressed the heart of marriage: that the primary vocation of a married couple is to be husband and wife, not father and mother. The latter is a consequence of the first. When children know that for their parents nobody is more important than each other they will be drawn into that relationship.

Marriage is a reflection of the Trinity, which we celebrate today. The perfect love that the Father and Son have for one another has generated the Holy Spirit from all eternity and will continue to do so for all eternity. The love of husband and wife have for each other constantly generates love, the source of which is the Most Holy Trinity, and in most cases that love results in new life.

In his Wednesday audience on 2 April 2014 Pope Francis said: Marriage is the icon of God’s love for us. Indeed, God is communion too: the three Persons of the Father, the Son and the Holy Spirit live eternally in perfect unity. And this is precisely the mystery of Matrimony: God makes of the two spouses one single life. The Bible uses a powerful expression and says 'one flesh', so intimate is the union between man and woman in marriage. And this is precisely the mystery of marriage: the love of God which is reflected in the couple that decides to live together. Therefore a man leaves his home, the home of his parents, and goes to live with his wife and unites himself so strongly to her that the two become — the Bible says — one flesh.

Murillo's painting, The Two Trinities, captures something of this. The unity between Mary and Joseph as wife and husband reflects the love of the Father and Son for each other. And while Joseph is not the Father of Jesus he is his legal father, according to Jewish law, as he named him: Her husband Joseph, being a righteous man and unwilling to expose her to public disgrace, planned to dismiss her quietly. But just when he had resolved to do this, an angel of the Lord appeared to him in a dream and said, “Joseph, son of David, do not be afraid to take Mary as your wife, for the child conceived in her is from the Holy Spirit. She will bear a son, and you are to name him Jesus, for he will save his people from their sins” (Matthew 1:19-21). The love that Joseph and Mary had for each other as husband and wife generated the love that Jesus experienced in his humanity while growing up in Nazareth, just like the youngster at our family day in Bacolod.

More than that, St Joseph was a real father to Jesus, his 'Dad', 'Papa', 'Tatay', as Spouse of Mary, the primary title the Church gives to this great saint on his major feast day, 19 March, and now in all the Eucharistic Prayers.

Moses

Carlo Dolci [Web Gallery of Art]

And we find a wonderful example of a father-figure in Moses in the First Reading when he pleads with God: “If now I have found favor in your sight, O Lord, I pray, let the Lord go with us. Although this is a stiff-necked people, pardon our iniquity and our sin, and take us for your inheritance” (Exodus 34:9).

We know that more than once Moses castigated his people and he acknowledges that they can be hard to deal with: This is a stiff-necked people. But in the same breath he acknowledges himself as one of them: Pardon our iniquity and our sin, and take us for your inheritance. He is a real father, pleading on behalf of his family for God's mercy while fully aware of their and his own shortcomings.

Carracci's The Trinity with the Dead Christ shows us the Trinity in the context of the death of Jesus, the Second Person of the Trinity, who became Man and died for us on the Cross. This is a common theme in many paintings, the Suffering Trinity (see El Greco's The Trinity below). Not only Jesus suffered. So did his Father and the Holy Spirit.

The Return of the Prodigal Son (detail)

Rembrandt [Web Gallery of Art]

I know of no greater expression of the suffering of the Father than the face of the father in Rembrandt's Return of the Prodigal Son. This doesn't express the joy that we know was there but the suffering behind it. And in that parable Jesus was showing us the compassion, the 'suffering with', of the Father for each of us. 

Carracci shows us the Father and the Holy Spirit to be as much involved in Calvary as Jesus, the Second Person of the Trinity, God who became Man, was. They suffered along with him, out of compassion for us.

This reality too is reflected in marriage as a couple gradually prepare their children to become independent while preparing themselves for the pain of letting their children go. To a lesser extent it is reflected in the lives of all who are responsible in some way for the education, formation and mentoring of others. A teacher may feel some sadness as the year ends and students move on but a few months later a new batch will be there. However, parents never cease to be parents and will always continue to share both the joys and sorrows of their adult children, who often enough are the cause of their parents' inner suffering.

Likewise, the Persons of the Blessed Trinity never cease to be a loving God, a God who calls each of us to share in the intense and eternal Love that they are for all eternity. Every human relationship is meant to reflect that to some extent, most of all the relationship between husband and wife.

—God is my Father! If you meditate on it, you will never let go of this consoling consideration.

—Jesus is my intimate Friend (another re-discovery) who loves me with all the divine madness of his Heart.

—The Holy Spirit is my Consoler, who guides my every step along the road.

Consider this often: you are God’s . . . and God is yours. (The Forge,No 2, St Josémaría Escrivá).

Antiphona ad introitum  Entrance Antiphon  (Cf Tobias 12:6)

Benedictus sit Deus Pater, Unigenitusqie Dei Filius,

Blest be God the Father, and the Only Begotten Son of God,

Sanctus quoque Spiritus, 

and also the Holy Spirit,

quia fecit nobiscum misericordiam suam.

for he has shown us his merciful love.

In the Extraordinary Form of the Mass (Traditional Latin Mass) this is used as the Offertory Antiphon on Trinity Sunday.

The Trinity

El Greco [Web Gallery of Art]

Magnificat, the monthly liturgical publication, has an excellent commentary on El Greco's painting The Trinity, in the current issue by Fr John Gribowich. I can highly recommend Magnificat  as an aid to prayer, both liturgical and private.

The Irish Blessing 2020

The Covid-19 pandemic has lead to much creativity. The Irish Blessing 2020 is one of countless examples. 300 Christian communities in Ireland worked together on this video, which was launched on Pentecost Sunday, as this report shows. Similar videos have been created by Christians working together in many parts of the world.

More than ten percent of the people on the island of Ireland are immigrants, the vast majority of them arriving within the last 25 years. Most of their children are Irish-born, something reflected in the video. The words go back to the earliest days of the Christian faith in Ireland and are expressed here in a blend of traditional Irish and contemporary international musical idioms performed with Christian joy. There is no longer Jew or Greek, there is no longer slave or free, there is no longer male and female; for all of you are one in Christ Jesus (Galatians 3:18).